Midnight
Victoria Rios (born August 15, 1986), known by her stage name Midnight (often stylised as MIDNIGHT), is a British-born Latin singer, songwriter, actress, and short-film director who rose to fame in late 2010. Often known for her outspoken, feminist-driven, and even flirtatious personality, the singer rose to prominence with the help of her debut single, "Survive", which featured Brazilian R&B singer Paulo Araujo. The single debuted and peaked at #1 for two weeks on the official UK Singles Chart, becoming the first act to do so with a debut single since Ryan Simmonds in 2001. In November 2010, Midnight released her debut album, Demons. The album was successful selling 113,733 copies in its first week and debuting at #1 on the UK Albums Chart, enough to be instantly certified Silver in its first week of availability by the BPI and Gold in its third week, eventually going Platinum in its fourth week of release. To date, Demons has been certified Diamond. She released her sophomore album UNCENSORED in August 2011 to critical praise and huge chart success, debuting at number one in the UK with sales of 193,521, becoming the fastest selling album of the year. Her lead single "Money Equals Love" also topped the singles chart the same week, selling 183,727, the highest first week sales for a single since 2006. Midnight is the first ever female artist to have her first five singles debut at number one, she also has two number one albums thus far. Early life and career Early life and career beginnings Midnight was born as Victoria Rios on August 15, 1986 in London, United Kingdom and spent much time traveling from her home to the United States, Spain and also Jamaica as a young girl for family related reasons. In a recent interview, Midnight revealed that her father abused her mother and was also a drug user, she then went on to confirm that they are no longer in contact. Midnight at first went to acting school to pursue her dream of becoming an actress and managed to appear on several popular televisions shows such as Eastenders in the early 2000's and also a children's television show which was later axed. Many years later, Midnight dropped out of acting school and believed that a music career was what she had more interest in and hired a vocal coach to help enhance her vocal ability, she later set up a MySpace page and managed to receive some popularity and secure a fairly small but supportive fanbase. Rise to fame and Demons (2010) Midnight's debut and lead single "Survive" which features Paulo Araujo was announced on August 6, 2010 and received much buzz from other artists in the industry who praised the look of her and the promising collaboration for the single. The single received positive reviews from critics and was described as a "song to dominates the clubs". The single was released September 27, 2010 on Fusion Records, debuting at #1, the first artist to chart at the top with their debut single since Thorn City in May 2010, a five month gap. Her success continued with the single as it stayed on to top the charts for two weeks, becoming certified silver in its second week and platinum in its third. Her debut single in the U.S "No Forgiveness", was released November 2, 2010 and was written by Elice Claire. After buzz for the songstress built up in the States and the controversial video began to get media talking, the song climbed the charts rapidly, peaking in the top 10 at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, due to scheduling conflicts and her teams wish to build up her fan base gradually over a longer period of time, the U.S release of Demons was cancelled. In the UK, her second single "Little Miss Murder" was released on November 22, 2010, a week after the release of the album and became her second consecutive #1 hit and has been certified Platinum. Her third single "Dominatrix" was released January 17, 2011 and gave the singer yet another #1 from the album, debuting with 110,639 copies sold, the highest debut sales frame since Elice Claire's "Cloud Nine/Never Let Go" which was released in August 2010. Her fourth and final UK single from the album was announced on February 17, 2011 to be the rock-influenced "License to Kill". The single debuted at #1 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming her fourth consecutive Platinum single and number one hit; selling 96,028 copies in its first week. To date, the album has sold over 1,000,000 copies and has been certified Diamond. UNCENSORED (2011) UNCENSORED was first announced in a press release which was posted on her official website on July 10, 2011, which also confirmed lead single "Money Equals Love" and the release date of August 15 for both single and album., the single was Midnight's first to receive a simultaneous global release and topped charts around the world, including the UK and the U.S. The album also opened at number one in the UK with sales of 193,521 and topped charts around Europe, debuting in the top ten in the U.S too. In an interview, Midnight confirmed a world tour will support the new album, the UNCENSORED Tour was later announced on July 25 on her official site in support of the album. Controversy * During the Fusion: Live tour, Midnight's set received complaints by parents who took their children to the show. Midnight's set reportedly promoted violence and consisted of risque outfits, Midnight responded to the complaints and claimed that angered parents should have done their research on the acts they were seeing live before allowing their children to go. * Midnight sparked anger amongst several artists when she claimed that religion in music was "overplayed" and had been done "time and time before", claiming that most general people couldn't relate to it as much as songs about real life troubles. This statement received a large amount of backlash from other artists in the industry, Alesha claimed Midnight was a "hypocrite" as she uses a cross in her logo, whilst Midnight responded that the cross was not to preach about Christianity but because of her attraction to the design. China, L'mondrea Brown, Sienna Martinez and Cassie Fox all backed Alesha in the disagreement between the pair. * Roughly three weeks after the release of her single "Little Miss Murder", KIRBY made accusations against her, saying that the singer had drugged him, tried to murder him and even tried to rape him. According to KIRBY, this particular incident happened just around the time Midnight was to shoot the video for her now #1 single, "Little Miss Murder", in which KIRBY plays a dead man who was killed by Midnight's character. KIRBY later claimed that Midnight flew him to to the UK briefly for the video shoot, later drugged him again, flew him back to Russia, and later dumped him on the sidewalk in St. Petersburg (where he lives) while he was still unconscious and after the video shoot was done. KIRBY hadn't remembered anything about the encounter until he shockingly saw himself in Midnight's hit video for "Little Miss Murder". Midnight simply commented on the matter and labelled KIRBY as "deluded". * It was heavily speculated in the media that Midnight had a one night stand with singer Brett Clarkson, which led on to Midnight writing the track "Better Sex on My Own" for her album Demons. Many months after the incident, sex tape rumours began to appear around the promotion for Brett's single "Lollipop". After many threats from Brett about the tape, he leaked it online the day his single reached number one. * Midnight found herself in more controversy with KIRBY in April 2011 when she was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on him and his boyfriend Carlisle. However, she was released the next day due to lack of evidence and it has since been confirmed that it was not Midnight who attacked the two. Presenting Since her debut, Midnight has been recognised for her distinctive personality which has led to many presenting offers come her way. She has gone onto present the following shows: * 2010 URAPS Christmas Chart Show * Happy New Year 2010 * The 10th Anniversary Chart Show Discography Main Article: Midnight Discography Albums 2010: Demons 2011: UNCENSORED Singles 2010: "Survive" 2010: "No Forgiveness" (U.S Only) 2010: "Little Miss Murder" 2011: "Dominatrix" 2011: "License to Kill" 2011: "Money Equals Love" Awards and nominations 2010 Video Music Awards * Best Video by a Female "Little Miss Murder" — Won * Best Video by a Newcomer "Survive" — Nominated * Best Video by a Newcomer "Little Miss Murder" — Won * Best Pop or Dance Video "Little Miss Murder" — Nominated * Best Hip-Hop/R'n'B Video "No Forgiveness" — Nominated * Best Collaborative Video "Survive" — Nominated * Best Art Direction "Little Miss Murder" — Nominated * Breakthrough Video "Little Miss Murder" — Won Urapopstar Awards 19 * Best Album Demons — Won * Best Overall Artist — Won * Best Female Artist — Nominated * Best Newcomer — Won * Best Pop/Dance — Nominated * Best Video "Little Miss Murder" — Nominated * Best Collaboration "Survive" (featuring Paulo Araujo) — Won * Best Promotion — Nominated Urapopstar Awards 20 * Best Single "License to Kill" — Nominated * Best Overall Artist — Won * Best Female — Nominated * Best Video "License to Kill" — Nominated * Best Collaboration "Promotion" — Nominated * Best Promotion — Nominated URAPS Rate * URAPS Rate 15 — #6 * URAPS Rate 16 — #12 Category:Female artists Category:Artists with number ones